It seems Research in Motion‘s Thorsten Heins has yet another touch decision to make on top of those he has already made in the few short months of his tenure as chief of the ailing company, this time regarding trimming the rank and file within the next two weeks.
Assuming the claims of contacts for Canada’s The Globe and Mail are true, “at least” 2,000 jobs are being cut on or before June 1st.
The numbers could climb higher at that. Reuters is saying as many as 6,000 layoffs could occur, and has described an unhappy routine of “Goodbye Thursdays” where more recent hires are let go.
RIM has not responded to what it calls “rumors and speculation,” which could be a sparkle of hope that these layoffs are not going to happen. As such, we have placed this story in the rumor bin. Still, it’s hard not to imagine Heins wanting to streamline the BlackBerry maker as much as possible to adapt to shrinking market share and keep the company afloat until BlackBerry 10 potentially spurs a miraculous revival when it releases later this year alongside Tru’s new BlackBerry VoIP application.